Monday, September 10, 2012
Are you having to put fuel before family?
I am about to pull you into a confusing and ridiculous dreamscape – just go with it.
You’ve just driven your car down a long road, and suddenly your car begins to take over. You let go of the steering wheel, but it keeps trundling along. It seems to know where it’s going – and soon you are in a petrol station forecourt. One of the pumps unhooks itself and turns its little oily eyes towards you.
It says, “You’ll have to cancel that Sunday Roast, mate. This is going to cost you more than you thought.”
All of a sudden, your pockets, which were filled with money, are empty, and you leave the forecourt feeling annoyed.
Ok – when I click my fingers you will wake up.
Right, so, how do you feel? Did that dreamscape hold some parallel to your real life?
According to Hyundai, it should do. A surprising number of people have had to stop visiting their family as often because of fuel costs, with 60% of families missing out on gathering together for the Sunday Roast.
Don’t despair though – there are ways to save on the costs of motoring. One of them is by driving in a safe and economically friendly manner. Another, which might help low mileage motorists and young drivers receive a cheaper quote upon renewal, is by purchasing telematics car insurance.
Get a quote and see if that Sunday Roast is back on the cards!
Photo © www.theedinburghblog.co.uk via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: car, drive, family, forecourt, low mileage, money, petrol, pumps, quote, road, steering wheel, Sunday Roast, telematics, visit, young driver
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Crawlies for dinner. I find the thought creepy.
As a generation I know that we’re extremely lucky to be able to eat all kinds of foods all the year round.
We want a pineapple? We go to the supermarket and buy one for a couple of quid – conveniently pre-prepared for us if we like. Fancy a coffee? Role on down to Starbucks and order a flat white. Need some milk? Will that be organic, full cream, skimmed, semi-skimmed, jersey, Goat’s, soy or rice?
The list could go on. But it’s worth remembering that we’re among the very first generations to have taken this wealth of choice for granted.
A pineapple doesn’t even seem exotic any more, yet only a couple of hundred years ago they were worth more than their weight in gold. Coffee, too, used to sell for a similar premium and milk, well, it was just milk.
The same goes for meat. Supermarket shelves are packed with meat from all over the world – from New Zealand to Iceland – but there is a concern that all this livestock and all these air miles could eventually take their toll on the planet.
As a response to this need for low mileage food, Masterchef winner Thomasina Miers has created a three-course Banquet of Insects for the restaurant at Oxford’s Museum of Natural History. It showcases such delicacies such as worm crisps, grasshopper salsa tacos and chocolate-coated locusts.Apparently, just as we’re all being asked to become car insurance customers for electronic vehicles in preference to gas-guzzlers, we should all be considering insects as sustainable and locally sourced food.
Nice idea, but I’m going to take some convincing. What do other young drivers think?
Image © avlxyz via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: electronic vehicles, low mileage, young driver